Dial mounting



Jne 14, 1949. E. B. Moss 2,473,291

DIAL MOUNTING vFiled Jan. 2, 1945 INl/eNToR BU paw Q61., MLUM Patented June 14, 1949 DIAL MOUNTING Eric Beecroft Moss, London, England, assignor to S. Smith & Sons (England), Limited, London, England, a company of Great Britain Application January 2, 1945, Serial No. 571,093

In Great Britain October 12, 1943 3 Claims.

l This invention relates to dial mountings for clocks and other instruments. Such dials are usually fixed to their supporting members by means of rivets. It may be desirable for aesthetic reasons that unsightly iixings shall not show,

and an object of the present invention is to meet f this requirement in a simple manner.

According to this invention, a dial mounting for a clock or other instrument comprises one or more tubular upset portions formed from the material of the dial as by a pressing or punching operation, and a supporting member having one or more holes through which the tubular portion or portions extend and are secured in position by turning over the end or ends. In the case where the supporting member is disposed to the rear of the dial, the upset portions are arranged to extend rearwardly.

A feature of the invention consists in arranging one of the tubular upset portions to perform the dual function of securing the dial to the supporting member and forming the opening through which an indicating member can extend. For example, in the case of a clock, said tubular upset portion is so positioned as to accommodate the arbor carrying the hands.

The supporting member may be resilient in a direction normal to the face of the dial. This arrangement is of advantage in mass production of instruments in which the movement and dial are secured in a definite position Within a casing having a cover glass against which a marginal portion of the dial abuts, the resilience of the supporting member enabling different thicknesses of the cover glass to be accommodated without securing the movement in diierent positions on the casing.

The following is a description of the invention as applied to a 24-hour electric alarm clock,

reference being made to the accompanying draw- L* ing, in which:

Figure 1 is a front elevation of the dial showing its supporting member in dotted lines,

Figure 2 is a section on the line 2-2 of Figure l, showing also a part of the clock casing, and

Figure 3 is a fragmentary sectional view taken subsequently on line 3-3 of Figure 2.

As seen from Figure 2, the dial 9 is secured to a supporting member I0 having resilient arms I I, the ends of which arms are attached to the front plate I2 of the movement by being bent at right-angles and their narrowed ends passed through slots I3 and secured in position by bending over or otherwise forming two tapered lugs 3l thereon, the shoulders I 5 abutting the forward side ofthe plate I2 adjacent the ends of the slot I3. However, the specific means by which the resilient arms are attached to the front plate I2 in itself forms no part of the present invention. A small iniiection i4. is also formed between the arms and the central portion of the supporting member. This central portion of the supporting member has two circular holes formed in it, one inthe centre through which the arbor 8 extends, and the other above the centre which forms a window for viewing an indicator disk I6 marked with A. M. and P. M. markings and noon and midnight. The dial 9, which is in the form of a metal plate dished forwardly at I8, carries the usual hour and minute indications I9, and has two holes 20 and 2l corresponding to the two holes in the supporting member and is so formed as to provide rearwardly-extending tubular upset portions 22 which pass through the holes in the supporting member and are swaged outwardly at 23 against the rear face of the supporting member. The dial is thus attached securely to the supporting member without the use of rivets or other unsightly xing means, and at the same time the edges of the holes are given a smooth radiused appearance. The clock casing 24 is provided with a circular opening in a front wall 25 and a shoulder 2@ is formed in this wall around the opening against which the cover glass can be pressed after insertion from the back of the casing. When the glass is in place, the front plate of the movement with the dial held by the resilient supporting member is also inserted from the back so that the periphery of the dished dial engages the glass and so that the front plate of the movement engages another shoulder 21 on the casing to which it is secured by screws 29. The resilience of the arms Il of the supporting member, especially of the portions outwardly of the bends I4, ensures that the glass is clamped securely in position even if there is a variation in thickness between diiierent glasses.

I claim:

1. A clock dial comprising a metal plate carrying the hour iigures and having at least one tubular rearwardly directed upset portion formed integrally therewith, a resilient metal strip having a portion thereon arranged to contact with the metal dial plate and provided with an aperture for accommodating each tubular upset portion, which latter is turned over on the strip, and the other part of which strip is arranged to be spaced away from the metal dial plate and has ing therein, at least one tubular upset portion.'4

formed integrally with the dial and extending through said opening in the strip,A and-a turned over end on said upset portion arrangedxto ene' gage the strip on the opposite side thereof to the dial, a backing element rigid lwitlithescasing; and' end portions on said resilient Stripsprung vrear-p; f wardly and secured to said backing..,element,

whereby said strip and. said dial are urged forwardlytoward saidfront stop means.

3. A clock comprising, in combination, a casing having a front opening' therein,y a flange around said opening providing a'rearwardly facing shoulder,l a cover glass extending'across said opening and having the'margin of .itsz outer face abutting saldi. shoulder, a dial'behindsaid cover glass and 25 having marginal portions pressing forwardly against .the rim of said glass, a resilient lstrip extending .across said opening behind saidldial and having a central portion lying alongside oi' and in contact with the rear central surface of said dial, said portion having at least one opening therein, at least one tubular rearwardly directed upset portion formed integrally with the dial and extending through said opening in the strip, andv a turned over end .onisaid upset portion arranged to engage the' strip on the opposite side thereof from the dial, radially outer portions of the strip being offset rearwardly from the planeof the dial, a backing element rigid with the casing and the extreme end portions of the resilient strip secured to said backing element, said strip being stressed to urge the dial and the coverI glass forwardly against said shoulder.

ERIC BEECROFT MOSS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the `ijlle of this patent:

NumberY Name Date Rel.. 7,002 Davis Mar.V 21, 1876 v lte.10,`920 Hotchkiss Apr. l0, 1888 1,752,652 Porter Apr. 1, 1930 1,957,694 Chamberlain. et al. May 8, 1934 1,967,227 Dinstman July 24, 1934 

